About Terri Clark
Terri Lynn Sauson, known professionally as Terri Clark is a Canadian country music singer who has had success in both Canada and the United States. Signed to Mercury Records in 1995, she released her self-titled debut that year. Both it and its two follow-ups, 1996's Just the Same and 1998's How I Feel, were certified platinum in both countries, and produced several Top Ten country hits.
Her fourth album, 2000's Fearless, though certified gold in Canada, was not as successful in the U.S., producing no Top 10 hits. Pain to Kill from 2003 restored her chart momentum in the U.S. with "I Just Wanna Be Mad" and "I Wanna Do It All", while a 2004 greatest hits album produced the Number One "Girls Lie Too". A non-album single, "The World Needs a Drink", and the 2005 album Life Goes On were her last releases for Mercury before she signed to BNA Records in 2007. There, she released the singles "Dirty Girl" and "In My Next Life". Although the latter went to Number One in Canada, she has not released an album for BNA.
Clark's albums have accounted for more than twenty singles, including six Number Ones. "If I Were You", "Poor Poor Pitiful Me", "Emotional Girl" and "In My Next Life" all topped the country charts in Canada , "Girls Lie Too" reached number one only in the U.S., and "You're Easy on the Eyes" was number one in both countries.
In 2004, Clark gained one of country music's crowning achievements when she became a member of the Grand Ole Opry. She was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 2018 and became a member of the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2023.
Clark was born Terri Lynn Sauson on August 5, 1968, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Her family eventually settled in Medicine Hat, Alberta, where she was raised. She is the second of four children: she has a younger brother, Peter, an older sister, Kim, and younger sister, Tina. Clark's grandparents, Ray and Betty Gauthier, were both noted Canadian country musicians, having opened for artists such as George Jones and Johnny Cash. Clark's mother, Linda, had belonged to the Canadian folk scene. Her parents divorced when she was young and her mother remarried, with Terri taking on her stepfather's last name.
By high school, Clark had grown to love country music and worked at a local Chinese restaurant to save money to move to Nashville, Tennessee. After graduating from Crescent Heights High School in 1987, she moved to Nashville where she got her start playing at Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, a honky-tonk bar across the alley from Nashville's iconic Ryman Auditorium. At that time, country music executives were largely uninterested in traditional country, but record producer and singer Keith Stegall gave Clark advice and encouragement to not give up. In 1994, Stegall became an executive at PolyGram/Mercury Records in Nashville and promptly signed Clark to a record deal.
In 1995, Clark issued her first single, "Better Things to Do." The song managed to reach the top five in both the United States and Canada. Her debut album, Terri Clark, followed shortly after. Clark had a hand in writing or co-writing 11 of the album's 12 tracks. Terri Clark also featured the singles "When Boy Meets Girl," "If I Were You," and "Suddenly Single." "If I Were You" became Clark's first No. 1 in Canada in June 1996. The album was certified Gold by the RIAA in the United States on April 5, 1996, and Platinum on July 29, 1997.
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